In the end of the previous week, the animal protection organizations of Kharkiv held a round table meeting in the Vremia media centre with the participation of the colleagues from the other cities of Ukraine, municipal organizations and the Feldman Ecopark Good Home rescue service. It was devoted to the analysis of the activity of the municipal enterprise “Centre for Treatment of Animals,” to the proposals concerning its reforming and to the discussion of the new complex programme of control of the number of stray animals with the help of humane method of sterilization.
The central guest of the round table was the representative of Lviv municipal enterprise “Lev” Iryna Shevchenko. She shared the positive experience of control of the population of cats and dogs with the help of humane methods.
“A few years ago, we rejected the irrevocable capture and euthanasia of animals. We sterilize, vaccinate, implant a chip and release them, while our volunteers take care of them later. It is a normal European practice. In the 21st century, it is a barbarity to kill animals, to open ‘death camps’ for our four-legged friends,” Iryna Shevchenko told.
This European practice is already applied in some towns of Kharkiv oblast. The head of the All-Ukrainian Service for Wild, Exotic and Domestic Animals Rescue “Feldman Ecopark Good Home” Iryna Podvoiska told about this and emphasized that people often come to the organization for advice and methodological recommendations.
“People call from different towns of Kharkiv oblast and ask to help them to solve the problem of stray animals. People don’t want to kill animals; they want to learn how to properly control the number of animals. More and more local communities choose this way. We are ready to provide them with our resources and knowledge,” Iryna Podvoiska noted.
As an example, she told about the town of Pervomaiskyi, where the local authorities and activists, with the support of the Feldman Ecopark Good Home rescue service, are implementing the CSVR programme (capture, sterilization, vaccination, return to natural habitat) for six months. More than 100 dogs have already been sterilized, vaccinated from rabies, treated from parasites, implanted with a chip, and a part of them have already found a new home. At the same time, the CSVR programme is already implemented in Liubotyn, Lozova, Merefa, Krasnohrad, Vovchansk, Solonitsevka, and in Okhtyrka (Sumy oblast).
